STICKS & STONES

VIETNAMESE LITHOPHONE

$29

Please note: requires the full version of NI Kontakt 6 or later.

AN INSTRUMENT AS OLD AS CIVILIZATION

Sticks and Stones is a one-of-a-kind Vietnamese lithophone, a pitched percussion instrument made from stone, meticulously sampled in a top Hanoi studio by a professional lithophone player.

It’s an instrument that’s directly connected to nature, cultures and musical traditions that spans the globe and pre-dates modern civilization. It’s raw, earthy, beautiful and in-your-face all at once, and if you are brave enough you can use it to replace your standard orchstral glockenspiel, when you need one that actually goes to 11. It’s nimble and agile with a huge dynamic range, and it’s great for anytime you need a sound that instantly conjures up nature and ancient cultures – or just for layering with your synths for some extra delicious bell tones.

What users are saying

Audio demos

Unexpected Turns (contextual)

by Nicolaj M Nielsen

Unexpected Turns (naked)

by Nicolaj M Nielsen

A Time Unsettled (contextual)

by Tom Bellingham

Flowing (naked)

by Nicolaj M Nielsen

VIETNAMAMESE LITHOPHONES

Certain types of rock produce bell-like sounds when struck, and different cultures around the world have collected and built musical instruments from these rocks since the dawn of humanity – and some of the oldest known of these ancient lithophones have been found in Vietnam, dating back thousands of years. Historically these instruments where played at special ceremonies, and considered to be a sacred link between the world of spirits and the world of humans, connecting the past to the present.

Lithophones have remained an important part of Vietnamese musical culture to this day, and are still an integral part of traditional Vietnamese music ensembles, performed by virtuoso players such as Ngon Tran whose talent and instrument was sampled for this library. The modern version of the instrument is precisely tuned and most often follows the pentatonic scale.

Traditional mallets

The traditional mallets made from bamboo and hard wood offers a clear and bell-like sound and allows for very fast rolls. It’s very agile and playable, and when needed it can get very loud and powerful. We sampled both hits with 4 dynamic layers and 4 round robins, and rolls with 3 dynamic layers.

Felt mallets

Not traditional in any way, but when we tried them in the session, everybody loved the sound so we decided to sample them. It’s a soft and delicate sound, even though the loudest dynamic still packs a punch. Also 4 round robins and dynamic layers in the hits, 3 dynamic layers for the rolls with seamless crossfading.

Resonant rubs

When rubbing the stone back and forth with the traditional mallet, you get a constant resonant pitch, with some nice texture and grit to it – great for sending through delays and reverbs. We sampled 3 different speeds which you can crossfade between.

EASY TO USE

Spend your time writing music, not trying to figure out what all the knobs and sliders do. The interface of Sticks & Stones is simple and easy to use: select your mallet type and then select hits or rolls. The flexible articulation switching system makes it easy to perform realistic lines on the fly, jumping between hits and rolls the way a real player would. You can have individual ADSR controls for hits and rolls, and even choose to accent the rolls with a velocity sensitive hit. The rolls themselves have been carefully edited to allow buttery smooth crossfading between the three dynamic layers, for ultimate expressivity and realism.

ARTICULATIONS

Hard mallets – hits (4 rr and 4 dynamic layers)
Hard mallets – rolls (natural and syncronized, 3 dynamic layers)
Felt mallets – hits (4 rr and 4 dynamic layers)
Felt mallets – rolls (natural and syncronized, 3 dynamic layers)
Resonant rubs (3 speeds)
11 different glissandoes (Time Machine PRO)

SIGNALS

Under – 1 x Shure SM57
Close – Neumann: 1 x U87 + 2 x KM184
Mid – 2 x AKG414
Far – 2 x Telefunkem M60

PATCHES

Main (natural rolls)
Main (Syncronized rolls)
Rubs
Glisses (Time Machine Pro)

Good to know

2472 samples
3.9 GB uncompressed samples
1.92 GB Lossless compressed size (installed size)
5 patches
REQUIRES THE FULL VERSION OF KONTAKT 6.7.1 OR LATER – NOT THE FREE KONTAKT PLAYER.

Additional features

Independent ADSR controls for hits, rolls and rubs
Natural or syncronized rolls: the 2 lower dynamic layers in the syncronized patch have been carefully edited to align all the individual transients to the top layer for buttery smooth crossfading.
Accent rolls or rubs with automatic hit overlay
Flexible articulation switching system: use keyswitches, temporary hotkey or MIDI CC.
Per signal stereo width control.
Per signal Delay and Reverb sends.
Route each signal directly to Kontakt’s discrete outputs, so you can process them individually in your DAW.